"It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves; immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven to the Dwarf Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine. Nine Rings were gifted to the Race of Men, who above all else desire power. For within these Rings was bound the strength and will to govern each race. But they were all of them deceived...for another Ring was made. In the land of Mordor, in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged, in secret, a Master Ring to control all others. And into this Ring, he poured his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate all life. One Ring to rule them all."

One of the biggest movie projects ever undertaken, the overall budget was around $300 million and principal filming for all three films took place over 18 months in Jackson's native New Zealand. The entire project took eight years, factoring in the early pre-production and the fact that additional pick-ups were filmed in between each film's release. In fact, the very last shot filmed (a few skulls tumbling along the ground), was quickly shot in the studio after the third film was released and included in the extended edition.

The films were remarkably faithful in many respects, though many changes were made due to the many factors involved with adapting such a monumental work. Among the most significant changes include Saruman's last scene, the characterizations of Faramir, Arwen, Denethor, and Gimli, and the removal of various subplots to make the story as a whole more appealing to movie audiences or to streamline their remarkably nuanced events from the books.

The theatrical versions were lengthy epics (all clocking around at 3-ish hours), and the "Extended Editions" (released before the succeeding movies) added at least another half-hour to each film's running time.note Around 12 minutes of that extra run time is credits added for the fan community website. Unusual for such a thing, Peter Jackson has stated that the Extended Editions are not an actual Director's Cut (feeling the term would unfairly imply that he was unsatisfied with the theatrical releases) but merely a fan-friendly extension to enlarge the world of Middle-Earth and see what things they left out of the faster paced Theatrical Versions.

These films provide example of:

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A through C

0% Approval Rating: No one liked Sauron, as he was the embodiment of evil in Middle-earth. His underlings were not fond of him at all and served him far more out of fear than out of either respect or loyalty. Even the Nazgul were just puppets and extensions of his power. And Saruman thought of allegiance with him as nothing more than a convenience.

1-Dimensional Thinking: The Nazgûl at the Fords of Bruinen in the first movie. Instead of just riding back into the forest, they ride downstream where the wave is certain to catch them... because the water has distorted all sense of direction for them (hence why they were reluctant to cross in the first place).

Absurdly Sharp Blade: Limbs and heads get lopped off frequently in this movie. Viggo Mortensen actually went to the prop department and asked them to make him a prop whetstone he could use as part of his costume. He realized that if Aragorn would be killing so many orcs, he'd have to keep his blade sharp somehow. In the extended edition, there's even a scene of him sharpening his sword while resting in Lothlórien.

Accent Adaptation: A multitude of accents from all over The British Isles are used with great effect throughout the trilogy to enhance characterization. The high-ranking characters (Gandalf, Saruman, Elrond, Galadriel etc) have RP (the Queen's English) accents, which lends them gravitas and enhances their position of authority. Bilbo and Frodo (arguably Hobbit gentry) also use RP, but it is less clipped and veers more towards an Estuary accent. Sam, Merry and most of the hobbit extras in films use a Somerset/rural accent, which befits their pastoral lifestyle and setting. The exception is Pippin, for whom Billy Boyd used his native Scottish accent. The Orcs have Ray Winstone-esque theatrical Cockney/SE London accents to emphasize their loutishness. Gimli was given a Scottish accent to mirror what in the text was simply gruff speech. (By John Rhys-Davies, who was raised in England by Welsh parents).

Acoustic License: In The Two Towers, when Saruman is addressing his army of ten thousand Uruk-hai, his voice appears to be magnified by magical means. However in the extended version of The Return of the King Saruman speaks to the protagonists from the top of Orthanc and no similar effect is used (online cartoon spoof site Sev Trek suggested that he was using his pointy wizard's hat as a megaphone).

Action Bomb: In The Two Towers, during the battle at Helm's Deep, the Uruk-hai placed a bomb in the drainage tunnel at Helm's Deep, with an Uruk with a torch blowing himself up to set it off.

The heartwarming and peaceful scenes of The Shire in Fellowship of the Ring (especially in the Director's Cut), filled with laughter, friendship and happy children (what a warrior lays down his life to protect) is what makes us actually care whether or not Frodo and the Fellowship defeat the Lord of the Rings or not.

While The Two Towers has a very loud build-up with the arrival of Saruman's army at Helm's Deep, the extended edition cuts away from this bombastic action to focus on cowering civilians in the caves underneath, with the Uruks chanting in the distance. Theoden also delivers a monologue where he doubts whether the Rohirrim can win and wonders what will become of his kingdom.

When the orcs are trying to break down a gate deep within Minas Tirith, Gandalf takes a few minutes to tell Pippin about the peaceful nature of the afterlife — a Far Green Country. The music at this point transitions from fearsome to quietly spiritual.

Eowyn is the most prominent example. She's a shield maiden of Rohan, trained to fight in battle. She doesn't get to demonstrate it much in the second film - but she does successfully lead the people to safety, qualifying her for Action Survivor status. She more than earns her stripes in the third film.

Arwen gets a moment in the limelight in the first film, taking Glorfindel's place as the rider who carries Frodo to Rivendell. She outruns the nine Nazgul and summons a flood to wash them away. Word of God has said that she was originally supposed to fight at Helm's Deep too.

There are also female warriors among the Easterling army. Women can be glimpsed in the army of elves that show up at Helm's Deep too.

Aragorn is more unsure about returning to the throne of Gondor, and must be convinced by Elrond to do so.

Faramir is also an example. In the book he immediately recognizes the danger of the Ring, thereby becoming the only "normal" Human in the entire story who isn't tempted by the Ring. Of course, Rule of Drama prevailed, so in the movie he follows in his brother's footsteps and tries to get the Ring to Gondor, due to massive angst over being the less-favored son. The scene of Denethor treating Faramir as The Unfavorite also was added to justify this change.

Denethor could apply as well: while his actions are more or less the same, the book actually gives him reason to despair in the end while the movie manages to keep it much more ambiguous.

Adaptational Modesty: Frodo has lost his cloak and Mithril vest in the Tower of Cirith Ungol, leaving him shirtless. In the book the Orcs have stripped him completely naked. Which explains Sam's line about how "you can't go walking through Mordor in naught but your skin", which is quoted verbatim from the book.

Adaptation Expansion: The fight between Gandalf and the Balrog is only mentioned in the book. Here, It's the opening scene of the second movie.

Tom Bombadil is cut from the film, along with the scene with where he rescues the hobbits from the Barrow-wights and takes their enchanted daggers which Merry uses to slay the Witch-king. Here, he uses an Elven dagger gifted by Galadriel which is never truly hinted or explained whether it's effective against the Witch-king of Angmar unless it's enchanted in a similar way with the books counterpart. Then again, it's a gift of Galadriel.

Gandalf stops at Rohan in the first book before going to Rivendell, attempting to warn Theoden about Saruman's Face–Heel Turn - but Grima Wormtongue has already started poisoning his mind. This is eliminated from the film, so it's not explained how Gandalf is so up-to-date on what's been happening in Rohan.

Adaptational Badass: The Eagles. In the book the force that turns the tide in the final battle is an entire army; in the film it's just four of them.

The movie version of Denethor lacks most of the redeeming qualities that he has in the books, in which he is a Good Is Not Nice character who nevertheless was a capable leader until driven off the Despair Event Horizon.

Although never a villain, Faramir was more hostile to the hobbits in the movie than he was in the books, and is tempted by the Ring, until Samwise tells him what the Ring did to Boromir.

Adaptation Distillation: Many favored aspects of the books were taken up a notch, while much detail was glossed over.

Most notably, the removal of the Tom Bombadil sequence, which doesn't really add anything incredibly significant to the narrative of the books.

The final chapters of the books, the Scouring of the Shire, were removed entirely. Even if they were somewhat anti-climactic, they gave the book a darker vibe, one of Tolkien's recurrent themes. Specifically, they were meant to illustrate what war does to a beloved homeland. They're also a riff on the rationing and privations suffered by English civilians with the Labour Party's austerity programmes during and after World War II.

Boromir in Fellowship of the Ring is described as having dark hair. For the movies they gave him light brown, bordering on blond.note In the books, Boromir looks a lot like Aragorn (they're related). The director probably felt that this would look confusing on film. Faramir's hair is not as dark, either. The vast majority of Men of Númenórean ancestry are said in the books to have dark hair and grey eyes.

The elves of Lothlórien are shown to be uniformly blonde, though only elves with particularly strong Vanyar ancestry, such as Galadriel, have blonde hair in the books.

While Frodo and Pippin are brunette, Merry and Sam are fairly blond, when in the books it specifically says that blond hobbits are a rarity.

Adaptation Personality Change: Did this with a few characters. Arwen's role is expanded and she becomes an Action Girl, Faramir becomes tempted by the ring and his Parental Favoritism issues are more played up. Elrond is also made to be bitter and cynical, thinking humans are useless. Merry and Pippin were much more mature and responsible in the book; their carefree and comical escapades in the film had been decades earlier (stealing food)note Farmer Maggot is a kind, wise and very helpful character in the book. or not at all (the fireworks scene). Denethor also gets a bit of Adaptational Villainy when he was simply Good Is Not Nice in the book.

The beginning of Return of the King has Sméagol kill Déagol over the Ring. Well, what if the friend you trusted most easily turned on you over one little trinket?

In Two Towers, Théoden was under a spell from Saruman for a long time and was so unaware about his son dying until much later. He was freed from it in time for the funeral, though.

Théoden: No parent should have to bury their child.

Although the hobbits aren't children, their small size and innocence invoke instincts of protectiveness similar to children, and the members of the Fellowship clearly think of them as their charges. Boromir's anguished "They took the little ones!" as he is dying is particularly heartbreaking.

Advantage Ball: Rather than worry about such things as tactical realism, advantage in battle seems to be principally a matter of who makes the most badass entrance, regardless of such matters as numbers and equipment. This is especially true of the Uruk-hai on Amon Hen.

Age Cut: Averted in the Fellowship Of the Ring when Elrond talks to Gandalf about an incident thousands of years in the past. We cut to a shot of Elrond in the past and he looks exactly the same, since elves are immortal.

Agony of the Feet: Averted when the other hobbits make a fire on Weathertop (inadvertently drawing the Nazgûl to them) and Frodo panics when he sees it and tries to put it out with his foot. Hobbits are stated to have tough soles in the book — basically their feet are their shoes, and they have a lot more fur on them than depicted in the film.

All There in the Manual: While not necessary to understand the movies, reading the books can provide valuable background information that just couldn't be fit into the films. In particular, the events of The Hobbit are recapped in less than a minute. If you haven't read it, quite a few of the little continuity nods will go right over your head, and seeing an aging Bilbo leaving Middle-Earth won't be nearly as emotional.

Aluminum Christmas Trees: "Second Breakfast" is a real thing in some European cultures, including England, which The Shire is based on. In real life, second breakfast is more of a mid-morning snack than a full meal (though given Hobbit culture, for them it probably isa full meal). "Elevenses" is real too, again more of a snack.

And This Is for...: Samwise Gamgee, the normally non-threatening gardener, even did this, dedicating Orc kills: "That's for Frodo! And that's for the Shire! And that's for my old Gaffer!"

Animal Espionage: Saruman has crows that serve as spies, and one scene has The Fellowship take cover when a flock of crows fly overhead before we see them report in back at Isengard.

Angelic Beauty: A rejected idea from the third film was to have Sauron (who is basically a Fallen Angel only appearing as an Evil Overlord) appear in his fair form as Annatar to beguile Aragorn during the final battle at the gates of Mordor. This did result in some deleted footage, but was replaced with the Aragorn vs. Troll fight.

Annoying Arrows: Averted for the most part. Arrows are very, very lethal in the films and people from both sides go down after getting hit by one. Played with (for dramatic effect) when Boromir gets tagged with two in a row: he's visibly pained but still keeps fighting for a while uninhibited until the third one brings him to his knees and he's helpless to stop Merry and Pippin from being taken.note In the book, Boromir is depicted as immensely strong, so this is canon, but it takes a lot more than three arrows to even slow him down. Also, the Uruk-hai berserker with the bomb-igniting-torch at Helm's Deep keeps running unimpeded when Legolas shoots him two times.

Antagonist Title: Sauron is the Lord of the Rings. He is the one who created the Rings of Power, and the One Ring is trying to reunite with him throughout the books. It would be assumed that it is Frodo, which is even referenced when Pippin calls Frodo "Lord of the Ring," but Gandalf hushes him and tells him not to Speak of the Devil.

The Apple Falls Far: When the hobbits almost tumble into a pit in Moria, Boromir drops a torch, which is followed by a long tracking shot of it falling into the abyss.

Archer Archetype: Legolas notably, and exaggerated somewhat from the books — especially with the jumping on elephants and shooting point-blank.

Armor Is Useless: There are many instances of mooks and redshirts dying from a single blow despite being encased in armor. Most notably, orc and goblins tend to wear particularly heavy-looking plate armor, yet often go down to a single swipe or arrow. Aragorn and Legolas also go without armor for a majority of the series, despite being some of the most capable fighters.

Slightly justified where the elves (and Aragorn) are concerned: Legolas is heard to pass advice on the weaknesses of Uruk-hai armor to his fellow elves in Helms Deep, so they can Attack Its Weak Point. When humans or orcs fire a volley, it tends to fell significantly less troops per arrow fired, though orcs get around this by sheer numbers.

Aragorn might be wearing leather armor the rest of the time, it's a bit hard to tell. Not the best armor out there, but someone who calls himself a "Ranger" would prefer mobility over protection.

And averted when Frodo is speared, only to reveal his Mithrilvest had protected him.

Also averted when Théoden is speared at Helms Deep. While he had to withdraw from the battle for the time being, he was seen back in the fight later.

Arwen was pretty much a background character in the book, and barely appeared or talked. In the film, while still mostly a Satellite Love Interest, she also has a badass moment saving Frodo from the Nazgûl (in the book it was a male elf called Glorfindel, and Frodo took that ride by himself!), and her importance as a driving motivation for Aragorn is played up.

Gothmog is a mix of this and Composite Character, as he takes the role that several different Orc commanders had in the book, and becomes the joint-leader of the attack on Minas Tirith.

Ash Face: Merry and Pippin, after setting off a firework at Bilbo's birthday party.

Award-Bait Song: The films gave us three stellar Tear Jerker examples: "May It Be" and "In Dreams" from Fellowship of the Ring and "Into the West" from The Return of the King. "May it Be" was nominated for an for Oscar, "Into the West" was nominated and won. "Gollum's Song" from The Two Towers averts the trope by being in a minor key, having a much darker tone, and being sung in a dissonant, shrill voice.

In the extended cut of Return of the King, what to do with Saruman is a bit of a problem for Théoden and the Fellowship. He resists coming quietly to be questioned until Grima backstabs him after being kicked around one too many times.

As explained in The Dog Shot First below, the sudden presence of Gollum at Mount Doom means that Sam doesn't have to fight or even kill Frodo to complete the quest and destroy the Ring after Frodo succumbs to the Ring's temptation and refuses to destroy it himself, since someone is already handling the fight for him.

Sam. Oh Sam. An ordinary guy who wants nothing more than to take care of his garden back in Hobbiton, Sam goes on to save Frodo countless times, take out quite a few orcs, and drive off Shelob by himself with nothing more than a Cool Sword and a magical flashlight.

Baleful Polymorph: Humorously subverted when Sam eavesdrops on Gandalf and Frodo's conversation about the One Ring in Bilbo's former house. Samwise begs Gandalf not to use his magic to turn him into something "unnatural". Then the scene cuts to a shot of Gandalf walking with a horse and telling Sam to keep up, only for Sam to run along after them.note A familiar Peter Jackson gag for those who remember what happened to the "bloody fool" psychiatrist in Heavenly Creatures.

Battle Chant: In Return Of The King, just before the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Théoden gives his "arise, arise, riders of Théoden". The entire army begins then chanting "Death" over and over (even Merry chants it).

Battle Cry: Due to the martial nature of the series, there are a few examples:

the Rohirrim : "FORTH, EORLINGAS!"

Aragorn's cry of "ELENDIL!"

And Théoden's "DEATH!"

An amusing example: when Boromir is teaching Merry and Pippin how to sword fight, they charge him shouting "For the Shire!"

Frodo is badly stabbed on Weathertop, and later loses a finger, Boromir catches several arrows in his chest, Aragorn spends the whole trilogy bloody, bruised and scraped. Practically all of the cast is harassed by either the Watcher in the Water or a cave troll. But all pretty boy Legolas gets over the course of the trilogy is a bruise and a little smudge of dirt. Éowyn made it through almost the entire Battle of the Pelennor Fields unscathed, with nary a cut or bruise... until the Witch-King smashes her shield (and shield-arm) with his gigantic flail.

Théoden also gets a spear in the shoulder during the battle of Helm's Deep. He's not badly injured, due to his armor, but he has to switch his sword to his other hand for a bit.

During the "Flight to the Ford" scene, Arwen gets a small cut on her cheek from a branch (due to being on a high-speed horse run), but is otherwise unharmed.

In The Two Towers, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli stop their run after Aragorn senses something. The Three Hunters run behind a rock and miss, by a matter of inches, being trampled by a huge contingent of horses and riders that are coming over the hill. Why the particularly perceptive Legolas or Aragorn couldn't see or hear the riders coming from a mile off is left unexplained, but the scene is played purely for effect. In the books, the hunters did in fact spot the riders coming from a long way off and had plenty of time to prepare themselves.

Sam in The Two Towers steps into the Dead Marshes before realizing he's walking into a bog that stretches as far as the eye can see.

Frodo notices that Gollum is stalking the Fellowship when he catches a glimpse of him in Moria. Gandalf replies that he's known about it for days.

Celeborn warns the Fellowship that they're being hunted by Orcs before leaving Lothlorien.

The Eye of Sauron, which is instantly drawn to anyone who puts on the Ring.

Big Bad: Sauron. His malevolence is retained because all his power was in the ring. He would be able to regain physical form if he retrieved the ring, and nearly every problem they deal with is connected to his power note The only enemy not directly connected to Sauron is the Balrog of Moria, which is a primordial enemy of a similar class of being to both Sauron and Gandalf.

In The Fellowship of the Ring, the battle between the Last Alliance and Mordor in the prologue certainly counts.

In The Two Towers, Helm's Deep fills out this role quite nicely.

In Return of the King you have the siege of Minas Tirith, the Pelennor fields, and the Black Gate.

Big Damn Heroes: As in the books, it happens at Helm's Deep and twice at Pelennor Fields, though a little varied. Unique to the films are two scenes in FOTR:

When Frodo is stabbed at Weathertop, the Ringwraith reaches out, likely to grab the Ring. Cue Aragorn literally jumping in, wielding torch and sword. He fights the five of them off, setting most of them on fire.

At Amon Hen, Merry and Pippin are surrounded by Uruk-hai; one runs in and seems to be ready to decapitate them (even though his orders say to bring them alive and unspoiled), when Boromir jumps right in between them and kills the Uruk.

There's also a scene in The Two Towers when Merry and Pippin have been abducted and Pippin was about to be eaten by an orc when they were unintentionally rescued by the surprise attack of the Riders of Rohan.

Big Good: Gandalf foremost, as he is the most powerful individual among the heroes. Galadriel and Elrond also come close due to being the most prominent Elven.

Big "NO!": The films have a whole bunch of them, most of them reasonably done:

Gimli has a Big "NO!" when he discovers the tomb of Balin, which dissolves into mournful blubbering.

Frodo also has one when Gandalf appears to die.

When Faramir discovers that Frodo possesses the One Ring and contemplates delivering it to his father, Frodo has one and immediately retreats from Faramir, much to Faramir's surprise.

Eomer gets in a good one when he finds Eowyn's body on the battlefield.

Right at the climax of the third film, when Frodo succumbs to the lure of the One Ring while standing on the edge of the Crack of Doom. It's actually two smaller "no"s, then followed by what might be the biggest "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" ever heard as Frodo puts on the Ring, alerting the Big Bad to his presence.

Yet another in the third film is Legolas in the final battle When Aragorn's about to be killed by a troll. It's definitely in the extended cut and the trailers at least.

Big Shadow, Little Creature: Sam, a hobbit, tries to scare a squad of Orc warriors this way. Unlike in the book, it doesn't really work. Also unlike the book, he kills them all easily.

Bittersweet Ending: Quite possibly the best example of this trope in high fantasy, along with its overlapping with Earn Your Happy Ending: After much hardship, sacrifice, and perseverance at ever-surmounting odds, the One Ring is destroyed, Sauron vanquished, and a whole new era of peace and happiness is ushered in. The Fellowship is reunited, Aragorn is made King of Gondor, and the four Hobbits return home as revered heroes. However, the War of the Ring brought much devastation to Middle-earth that will take years to rebuild and countless lives were lost in all the conflict. The time of magic, the Elves, and the Maiar in Middle-earth ceases as Men begin to rule. But the biggest toll is seen in poor Frodo as he has been both physically and emotionally scarred by the Quest. He could never go back to living a life of peace and innocence in the Shire. Thus, he accepts the Valar's invitation to sail into the West, much to the heartbreak of his best friends Sam, Merry, and Pippin.

Black and White Morality: For the most part, though Boromir and Frodo are otherwise good guys who succumb to the evil temptation of the Ring without meaning to. Aside from that, though, pretty much everyone besides Gollum is either clear-cut good (if they oppose the forces of Mordor and Isengard) or evil (the leaders and armies of Mordor and Isengard) and even Gollum falls squarely into the "evil" category at the end of The Two Towers and stays there in The Return of the King.

Black Knight: Sauron from the intro of the Fellowship of the Ring opening wears a huge suit of armor, roars monstrously, and swings a gigantic mace everywhere, sending scores of soldiers flying with each blow. He is modeled after his former master Morgoth from Silmarillion, and the books (or at least the appendix) did mention him taking part in this particular battle personally, so at least it's fairly justified.

Gandalf uses it to dramatic effect in Imladris, complete with Empathic Environment. It also appears to cause elves such as Elrond and Legolas physical pain, as both wince at its usage.

Blade on a Stick: Elf King Gil-Galad's spear in the prologue of Fellowship of the Ring, and the Chinese style polearms carried by Haldir's Elves at the Battle of Helm's Deep.

Blinded by the Light: The orks are blinded by the rising sun when Gandalf and his army come charging towards them.

Blood from the Mouth: When Aragorn is fighting Lurtz, the orc headbutts him in the face and his mouth is bleeding afterward.

Bloodless Carnage: Downplayed. There is quite a lot of gore if you watch closely, but the gushing blood is almost indistinguishable from the grime and filth the orcs are covered in.

Body-Count Competition: Gimli and Legolas have one in the battles of Heml's Deep and Minas Tirith. Even after Legolas takes down the war beast, Gimli says it still only counts as one.

Book-Ends: Several examples in The Two Towers (which may seem odd as it's the middle film):

Near the start of the film, Frodo attacks Gollum with Sting held in his left hand and holds the tip to his throat. Near the end, he does the same to Sam, except with Sting in his right hand.

Faramir's arc starts with Denethor mockingly asking if Faramir wants to attend the Council of Elrond to "show his quality". At the end, Sam earnestly tells him that he has shown his quality.

The trilogy as a whole begins and ends in Hobbiton. Additionally, it starts with Bilbo beginning work on his book There And Back Again and ends with Frodo writing the final lines of the sequel. The Lord Of The Rings

Bottomless Magazines: Nobody ever runs out of arrows despite firing dozens of them and never being shown replenishing their quivers or picking the arrows out of the bodies.

Brave Scot: Gimli may be from Middle-Earth, but he comes across as this with his thick Scottish accent, red hair and habit of calling everyone "laddie".

Breaking Speech: Elrond gives one to Arwen. This is an unusual example because he does it out of love.

Brick Joke: Nobody tosses a Dwarf, but then Gimli later has to get tossed in order to fight the orcs across a gap.

A blink-and-you'll-miss-it example: early in The Fellowship of the Ring the four Hobbits stop for "second breakfast," but Aragorn pushes them on. Pippin complains, so a couple of apples come flying out of the bushes from Aragorn's general direction. One hits Pippin in the head, and he looks up at the sky in confusion. Much later, just after the Ents have trashed Isengard in The Two Towers, Pippin mentions that he's hungry, then sees some apples floating in the water. He grabs one, then looks up in the same manner.

Bring Him to Me: Saruman wants the ring bearer brought to him alive and unspoiled.

Buffy Speak: Pippin during the creation of the Fellowship: "You need people of intelligence in this kind of mission... quest... thing."

Butt-Dialing Mordor: Pippin tries to use the Palantir and unintentionally ends up getting face time with Sauron himself.

Butterfly of Transformation: The white moth that brings giant eagles to the rescue when Gandalf is imprisoned at Orthanc, and again when the Gondor army is at the gates of Mordor. (Only appears in the Jackson films, not the book).

Butt-Monkey: Gimli in The Two Towers and Return of the King, with a few small moments of it in Fellowship.

NOT THE BEARD!!!!!

Call That a Formation?: While lip service is paid to forming battle-lines, the battles quickly devolve into total chaos.

Cannot Cross Running Water: Arwen uses an invocation to Ulmo to raise the waters of Rivendell and prevent the Ringwraiths from crossing the ford. (Compare the book, where the waters rise due to a boundary spell set by Elrond).

Captain Obvious: Legolas, who tells the audience what a diversion is. The writers joke about it on the commentary.

Minas Tirith is about to be overwhelmed by an enormous horde of Orcs—and then the Rohirrim appear at the top of the hill, blowing their horns.

The same happens at Helm's Deep, with Gandalf and Éomer's éored.

Cavalry of the Dead: In the book, they're ghosts who accompany Aragorn to prove his kingship, inspire fear and awe, and ensure only stone cold badasses are brave enough to fight alongside him. In the film, they are the cavalry.

The small glass vial containing the Light of Eärendil, given to Frodo by Galadriel in the first film. It comes in handy in the third film, when Frodo is lost in Shelob's lair. The elven rope given to Sam also comes in handy, though it's only given a bit of relevance in the extended edition. Given the length of time between the release of the film in theaters, this turned into a bit of a Brick Joke.

In the book all items received by the Fellowship in Lothlórien fit this trope (most notably the Elven cloaks and brooches). She even gives Sam a box of dirt. The movie keeps most of them with the exception of Boromir's belt (in the book it served to help Faramir realize that he indeed saw his dead brother and not just a vision).

In the beginning of the second film, Saruman instructs his mooks to dam the river. At the end of the film, the Ents break the dam, dramatically destroying Saruman's army and Elaborate Underground Base in the ensuing flood.

If counting where Bilbo and Frodo's sword, Sting, received its name in The Hobbit killing the giant spiders of Mirkwood as they attacked the ensnared dwarves, it's perhaps one of these or a Brick Joke that Samwise uses Sting to defeat Shelob.

Child Soldiers: There is a scene in The Two Towers where the soldiers suit up to defend Helm's Deep and we see a number of people being armed are very young boys needed to up their soldier count. Mercifully, we're never shown the kids doing any actually combat besides throwing stones at the besiegers from the wall.

Gimli: Some of these men have seen too many winters.

Legolas: Or too few.

Chromatic Arrangement: All merchandise, including the special edition DVDs, was colour-coded by film. Fellowship was green, Two Towers was red, and Return of the King was blue. Irritatingly, the Complete Recordings soundtracks had a different order: Fellowship was red, Towers blue, King green. These colours were made to match those of the limited edition soundtracks released at the same time as the films, which were designed before the films were even released. So in a way the Complete Recordings show the original colour concepts, then they went and changed them for the extended edition DVDs.

Color Wash: Especially noticeable in day-for-night scenes. There's even a scene in Return of the King where Pippin is searching for Merry, that appears as a daylight scene in the theatrical version but was regraded to night for the extended version.

An interesting example occurs with several shots used more than once (Green Dragon Inn exterior, Boromir's last stand, a certain close-up of Elrond) in different movies: frame-by-frame comparison shows exactly the same imagery with drastically different colors.

Come with Me If You Want to Live: Aragorn gets introduced this way in Bree, as a wilderness expert who can outrun the Nazgûl. More so in the film, since they set out that very morning after they outwit the Nazgûl ambush. In the film, Aragorn fits the trope to a T:

Later on, Treebeard saves Merry and Pippin by stepping on an orc for them.

When the Rohirrim are attacked by orcs on the way to Helm's Deep, Gimli gets pinned under the body of one of the Wargs, and another one creeps up on him. Aragorn then grabs a spear out of the ground and skewers it before it can attack.

Sam also stabs an orc from behind with Sting when he rescues Frodo from the tower of Cirith Ungol.

The prologue has cameos by senior prosthetics supervisor Gino Acevedo and prosthetics technicians Rich Mayberry and Xander Forterie as three of the seven Dwarf Lords who receive Rings of Power; concept artists John Howe and Alan Lee play two of the Nine Kings; Weta production worker Ben Britton and pre-viz storyboard shader Jason Secto play elves fighting in the Last Alliance.

Cruel to Be Kind: After their narrow escape from the Mines of Moria, most of the Fellowship is extremely distraught at the loss of Gandalf and stop just outside the exit to mourn. However, Aragorn orders Boromir to get them on their feet and continue the journey, answering protests of not giving them a moment by noting that by nightfall, the whole local area will be crawling with Orcs fully intent on killing them or worse, and the Fellowship must get to safety before dusk.

Curb-Stomp Battle: Ents vs. Isengard. Army of the Dead vs. Forces of Sauron, unlike the book, which describes it as a long day of battle.

While the Rohirrim's battle against the Haradrim outside Minas Tirith is nearly this, as the Mumakil the Haradrim ride are basically unstoppable juggernauts that impale, crush, and swat horsemen away with impunity, the Rohirrim give a good accounting of themselves, managing to bring down a number of Mumakil by taking advantage of their greater numbers and maneuverability, though it still takes the Army of the Dead to tip the scales in Middle-earth's favor.

Nearly all of the battles of the soldiers of Gondor against the forces of Mordor. When the trolls break through the gate of Minas Tirith the soldiers manage to kill at least one troll and in this video you can see at least one soldier who spears down an Orc (seen at 0:51) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owzk91QqbEA

Cut Apart: The first movie has closeups of sleeping hobbits mixed with Ringwraiths surrounding the beds. When the stabbing begins, we discover the beds are empty and the hobbits in another room.

D through J

Darker and Edgier: The three movies seem to alternate between this and Lighter and Softer compared to the original book. They drop a couple of the more lighthearted scenes of the book (Tom Bombadil, for example) and focus more on the bloody battles (easier to do in a visual medium), while omitting some of the creepier book-scenes (such as the barrow wights) and adding a lot of comic relief.

Daylight Horror: The Ringwraiths are frightening at night. They prove to be just as frightening when they chase Arwen and a sickly Frodo across a bright green field in the middle of the day.

Death Glare: The crowning one has to be the one Theoden gives Grima after being freed from Sauron. You can almost hear Grima piss himself.

Death Is Such an Odd Thing: Orlando Bloom said in the commentaries for the extended edition that this is what he was trying for, when the camera had its closeup on his face in the One-Woman Wail montage after Gandalf fell: he was coming to grips with what death was, as an elf whose only experience with it previously had been seeing enemies die in battle.

Defeat Equals Friendship: Defied. Saruman tries to use this trope as a trick when he offers Théoden and the Fellowship a peace council after the Ents corner him in Orthanc. Théoden calls bullshit on it.

Despair Gambit: Sauron and his minions do a lot of this, often with considerable subtlety. Perhaps the most overt example is at the beginning of the Battle of Pelennor Fields, when the orcs start the siege by catapulting the heads of Gondorian soldiers into the city.

Determinator: Sam is Frodo's only companion to stay with him clear from the Shire to Mt. Doom, in spite of being turned away by Frodo twice, and in spite of Frodo and the others twice secretly conspiring with regards to the journey without Sam or the other hobbits. He also saves Frodo from an Eldritch Abomination and Orcs, then carries him partway up Mt Doom on his own back. The only incentive he gets to do any of this is when Gandalf says, "Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee" once, right at the beginning.

Deus ex Machina: The eagles show up in the final battle to keep the ring wraiths at bay, and also to fly Frodo and Sam away from the erupting Mt Doom. This has led many a fan to wonder why none of the Fellowship flew on the eagles to Mordor in the first place.

Devoured by the Horde: The orc pack who take Merry and Pippin to Isengard are starving, and one of them attempts to eat the hobbits. Under strict orders to bring any hobbit back in one piece, the leader of the orc pack kills this orc instead, who is then devoured by his hungry comrades.

Didn't Think This Through: During the seige of Helm's Deep, the Uruk-Hai use Saruman's newly-created explosives to blow up the wall in order to make a breach. However, they were caught off-guard by the blast almost as much as the defenders were. The Uruks near the grate are blown up along with the ones already on the wall and countless more are crushed beneath massive chunks of falling rubble that were blown sky high by the blast. After the dust settles, instead of immediately storming through the breach, they stand there staring at it, clearly not realizing that Saruman's new weapons would be that powerful. Of course, it's probably likely that Saruman just didn't bother to inform them of its destructive power because he didn't care, given that We Have Reserves was in full effect for the Uruks.

Digital Head Swap: One of the techniques used to create the proper scale for the Hobbits.

Disney Death: Alongside Frodo's examples from the book that made it into the film, we also have Aragorn's plunge off of the cliff in The Two Towers, alongside Gollum's 'death' right after going through Shelob's tunnel.

Disney Villain Death: Alongside examples from the book, we also have a couple unique to the films, those being Saruman's (uncut version only) and Denethor's deaths. Though it should be noted that unlike most versions of this trope, we actually see the result of Saruman's fall.

Does Not Like Shoes: Frodo and the Hobbits are the obvious examples, but Lady Galadriel also goes barefoot.

The Dog Bites Back: Saruman really shouldn't have mistreated Wormtongue the way he did, as we see in Return of the King (at least in the extended edition).

The Dog Shot First: In the book, Gollum bites the Ring off Frodo's hand, leaves the hobbit writhing in pain, revels madly in his triumph, and falls into the Crack of Doom through his own fault. In the movie, Frodo, apparently still in the Ring's thrall, gets up and starts fighting Gollum for the Ring, knocking them both off the edge where Sam rescues Frodo. Peter Jackson figured it was more satisfying for the audience to see Frodo actually take part in the Ring's destruction.

Door Closes Ending: Seen as Sam returns to his family and home, having just seen the last of the fellowship leaving.

The Dragon: The Witch-King of Angmar to Sauron. Aided by the fact that his mount, a Fell Beast, actually looks kind of like a dragon.

Dream Intro: At the beginning of The Two Towers, Frodo has a dream that reminds us what happened to Gandalf at the end of Part 1, although in this case it continues into a sequence which he couldn't possibly have seen.

Driven to Suicide: The look we see in Frodo's eyes as he hangs over the edge, feeling all too tempted to give into despair. Thankfully, through Sam's loyalty and love, Frodo grabs his hand and subverts this trope.

Eager Rookie: Merry and Eowyn both want to join the battle of Minas Tirith but have to sneak in with the rest of the Rohirrim, since them joining the fight is met with disapproval from the others due to being a hobbit and a woman, respectively. Eowyn at least has some battle training.

End of an Age: The destruction of the One Ring and the Second Defeat of Sauron marked the end of the Age of Elves and of magic in Middle-earth; the Third Age. In turn, it would give rise to the Fourth Age, which would become known as the Age of Men.

Engagement Challenge: Similarly to the book, Elrond is disapproving of Aragorn and Arwen's romance until Aragorn proves he's worthy of being King. The scene in the third movie when he arrives bearing Andúril was added to show that he had changed his mind and given them his blessing.

Epic Movie: Collectively and individually, averaging at about three hours each. And that's just the theatrical cuts. The extended edition of The Return of the King actually has a running-time of four hours, and that's without counting the end credits which are another 20 minutes themselves.

Sam telling Frodo the promise he made to Gandalf in the beginning. ("Don't you lose him, Samwise Gamgee!")

Merry and Pippin's mischief at Bilbo's birthday party.

Boromir instantly suggesting the Ring be turned over to Gondor to use against Sauron.

Legolas defending Aragorn against Boromir.

Gimli grabbing an axe and attempting to destroy the Ring right at the council.

Saruman chastising Gandalf for consorting with Hobbits.

Lurtz chokes the first orc he sees within seconds of his birth.

Gandalf arriving in Hobbiton for Bilbo's birthday party. All the children are excited to see him, while the adults look on disapprovingly (for the most part, one Hobbit laughs at a miniature fireworks display only to frown when his wife appears.)

Wormtongue's introduction in Edoras shows that he is manipulative, creepy and nevertheless a little pathetic.

The first glimpse of the Lady Galadriel (other than the flash of her eyes that Frodo sees when he hears her voice in his mind) is her descending the stairs in Caras Galadhon with Celeborn in a blinding, majestic aura of white light. 'The Lady of Light', indeed!

Saruman: Who now has the strength to stand against the armies of Isengard and Mordor? To stand against the might of Sauron and Saruman ... and the union of the two towers? Together, my Lord Sauron ... we shall rule this Middle-Earth!

Evil Sounds Deep: Saruman has a deep, booming voice. The Uruk-Hai captain Lurtz also has a very deep voice, as do other orcs, when they're not...

Evil Sounds Raspy: A side effect of corruption by rings of power. Gollum speaks this way after possessing the One Ring for centuries, and the Ringwraiths rasp their few lines. Even Sauron himself has a somewhat raspy (if deeper) voice when he's heard onscreen.

Evil Tower of Ominousness: The (original) Dark Tower, Barad-dûr. It's actually depicted as under construction during the first film; the completed tower itself is first seen at the end of the film, from the Seat of Amon Hen; and revealed in the second film.

Evolutionary Retcon: By the third entry, Peter Jackson had decided he wasn't a fan of the "witch noses" on certain orcs in the previous films. As a result, none of Return of the King's orcs sported long, pointy noses.

Possibly Justified in-universe in that most of the orcs we see in the first two films are from either Moria or Isengard, whereas those in ROTK are almost exclusively of Mordor stock. It's not inconceivable that there may be some regional variation in appearance.

Exact Words: Legends goes that no man can kill the Witch-King. Éowyn reveals she isn't one a moment before she stabs him in the head.

Aragorn: (smirks, strolls up to the Mouth of Sauron, and cuts of his head) I do not believe it. I will not.

Averted with Saruman's Disney Villain Death. To shorten the film, the Scouring of the Shire had been deleted and he was made to die, but in Tolkien's eyes the original fate of the Wizard has been much worse: for a Maia, a minor god, and a powerful ruler able to sack a kingdom, to be reduced to begging through the countryside was a much greater humiliation.

Final Speech: While both Boromir and Théoden had some last dying words in the book, they really spice it up in the films, especially with Boromir's last line to Aragorn: "My brother, my captain, my king".

Fire-Forged Friends: Gimli and Legolas probably count as Trope Codifiers. They openly hate each other at their first meeting (Gimli: "Never trust an elf!"), but by the end of Fellowship they are inseparable.

Gimli: Never thought I'd die fighting side by side with an Elf. Legolas: What about side by side with a friend? Gimli: ...aye. I could do that.

Flash Forward: Elrond warns Arwen what will happen if she stays in Middle-Earth and marries Aragorn, and there is a scene of Aragorn's funeral, after he has become king and has died of old age, while Arwen lives on in grief and loneliness.

Used to great effect to help the average-height actors playing hobbits and dwarves seem to-scale with their man and elf co-stars.

Used in reverse in one shot from The Fellowship of the Ring: While climbing Caradhras, Frodo falls and drops the Ring. There is a shot of the Ring lying in the snow in the foreground. The filmmakers used a larger model of the Ring in this shot to make it seem closer, while still in-focus.

In an Extended-Version-only scene, Frodo and Sam see a group of Wood-Elves on their way to the Grey Havens while they're leaving the Shire. The final film ends with Frodo going to the Grey Havens and leaving Middle-Earth with the rest of the elves.

Gollum's Song, sung by Emiliana Torrini and played over the credits of The Two Towers, ends with 'You are lost, you can never go home.' While it's ambiguous who exactly this is directed towards, by the end of the quest Frodo at least suffers a tragic case of You Can't Go Home Again.

In Return of the King Gimli mentions how he wishes he could summon a legion of Dwarves to march on Gondor with the Rohirrim. However Legolas tells him, "Your kinsmen may have no need to ride to war. I fear war already marches on their own lands" which may be a reference to the Easterlings' siege on the Dwarven kingdom of Erebor and their allies that happens off-screen at the same time as the siege of Minas Tirith.

Forgot About His Powers: Sometimes Gandalf uses his magic powers, and sometimes he doesn't. He does when battling Saruman, or when facing the Balrog, or when he scares off the Nazgûl that are chasing Faramir's men on the road to Minas Tirith. But at other times he seems to forget he's a wizard and is content simply to whack bad guys with his staff, most notably when he's fighting in hand-to-hand combat in the siege of Minas Tirith or in the final battle at the gate to Mordor. Ian McKellen even asked this question once.

McKellen: Why don't I zap them?

Jackson: (thinking quickly) ...ah, you see, the staff is out of batteries and the local alchemy shop is closed for the war.

In the gag reel for Fellowship, this happens also to the crew. Everyone's sitting inside the hobbit hole listening to directions, then when the meeting ends they all stand up and hit their heads on the roof. Then everyone falls to the floor.

From Bad to Worse: The odds keep getting stacked against the heroes and their allies no matter what glimmer of hope may shine. From the Skirmish at Amon Hen, to the Battle of Helm's Deep, to the Battle for Gondor, and ultimately the Battle at the Black Gate. Each new battle is much more hopeless than the last, and it is with that last one that everything hangs by a thread.

During the Entish assault on Isengard, one of them catches fire. The Ent running around and then dousing himself in the overflowing Isen is hilarious if you notice it.

As the Ents break the dam overlooking Isengard, there is an Ent in the foreground holding a struggling orc in his hand. When the Ent sees the dam breaking in the background, he casually throws the orc in the path of the torrent and walks away.

In both cases the water is only "doom" to evil forces, and is actually the salvation to the good ones[[note]]Apparently in Tolkien's universe the element of water is good (also reinforced by how you can only reach the Undying lands by sailing over water), and the element of fire is bad (the evil Sauron and Saruman both heavily lean toward fire use and symbolism).

In The Fellowship of the Ring when Arwen conjures up the Bruinen river against the Black Riders (invoking a Mass "Oh, Crap!" out of them, but they can't outrun it). For added awesomeness, the waves are horse-shaped.

God Save Us from the Queen!: "In place of a Dark Lord you would have a QUEEN! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me, and despair!"

Godzilla Threshold: The reason Theoden recruited young boys as Child Soliders for the Battle of Helm's Deep; the Uruks planned to kill everyone and they needed to up the solider count. To be fair, everyone involved in-universe (Theoden, the soldiers taking the children to the armory) was thoroughly unhappy with the situation.

Gollum Made Me Do It: More pronounced in the film than the book, where we're asked to take Gollum as more of a whole person.

Gondor Calls for Aid: Denethor refused to light the signal fires due to a combination of bad blood between Gondor and Rohan, and due to a misguided notion that Gondor needed no aid (Denethor being under the influence of Sauron affected his decision making somewhat). Pippin manages to sneak into one of the towers and lights the fire himself. Théoden, when the subject was first broached by Aragorn, was bitter over Gondor not sending any help to Rohan during their devastating fight... when he actually gets the call, though, he personally leads The Cavalry.

Great Offscreen War: Not a typical example, as it takes place at the same time, rather than before, the main conflict—but in the extended edition of RotK, there is a moment when Gimli says that he wishes he had Dwarf warriors beside him. Legolas replies that he fears the Dwarves are already at war; anyone who has read the appendices knows that both of their homelands (Erebor and Mirkwood, respectively) are indeed fighting Sauron's armies in the north. The Dwarves even lose their king in the conflict. The fighting around Gondor is a sideshow by comparison to the scale of the attacks on Erebor and Mirkwood.

He Didn't Make It: The Two Towers has a strange example because that scene was filmed before the script was totally ironed out: the director wasn't sure what actually did happen to Aragorn, so decided to keep the dialogue vague to save time.

Éowyn: Where is Lord Aragorn? Gimli: He fell.

Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Unless you are a Rider of Rohan, or an Elf soldier, or a Dwarf, or a soldier of Gondor. Interestingly, Éowyn wears a helmet properly like the Rohirrim (along with Merry, Éomer, and Théoden) but she needed a custom one made so that her face was still recognizable to the audience.

Hoist by His Own Petard: Sauron's demise becomes a Karmic Death when you realise it was his corruption and degradation of the innocent hobbits Sméagol and Frodo and their resulting conflict over the Ring in Mount Doom that causes it to fall into the fire.

The night battles at Helm's Deep and Osgiliath are shown in a blue tint. Helms Deep occurs with rain during the bulk of the battle,meaning that the only light would have been lightning and scattered torches, but this isn't cited as nor provides any obvious difficulty. Osgiliath is a retreating battle in which both sides tried to ambush the other, no one has torches lit, but the orcs in the boats stay low, and the Gondorians took cover in the broken urban landscape

The lair of Shelob is fairly well-lit despite being depicted in the book as pitch black, (we are told she "secretes" darkness), but here the audience has to see. Frodo does run right into a web he should have been able to clearly see, so apparently the lair is lit in our view, but not in his.

The Rohirrim defenders of Helm's Deep let the Orcs neatly form up outside the fortress without shooting - until one bowman prematurely does, which (only then) provokes the Orcs to charge.

The Rohirrim cavalry charge head-on at the giant Oliphaunts, swatting at their legs, goes exactly as one would expect. However, this was due more to real-life considerations than artistic license. According to the DVD commentaries, going by the book - shooting the Oliphaunts in the eyes - was deemed too gruesome and reminiscent of animal cruelty toward real elephants to be filmed.

The Return of the King includes an intentional example. Faramir is forced to make an unsupported cavalry charge across open ground against a fortified position. Said position being an urban environment with lots of rubble in the streets that would handily take away all of a horse's speed and maneuverability. This goes about as poorly as one can expect and was meant to display Denethor's failing sanity.

In the battle before the gates of Mordor, the heavily outnumbered and surrounded Army of the West break ranks and charge into the enemy, whereas in the book they hold their formations on higher ground and let the enemy come to them. Also, in the film version they arrive on war horses but inexplicably dismount and attack on foot.

Homage Shot: Peter Jackson shot one bit at Bilbo's birthday party in Fellowship of the Ring ("Proudfeet!") as an exact copy of a shot in Ralph Bakshi's animated Lord of the Rings. Jackson even helpfully points this out in the commentary. A circle-round shot of the four hobbits at Weathertop is also lifted from the original, although the camera moves much faster and Aragorn is absent. Same goes for the four hobbits hiding under a root by the wayside with the Nazgûl leaning in above them.

The scene at the Black Gate of Mordor appears to be an homage to the Wizard Of Oz.

Not exactly an homage shot, but the Nazgûl attacking the Hobbits' room at the Prancing Pony was drawn from Bakshi's film. In the books, it's explicitly stated by Aragorn that they would not have openly attacked the inn in this manner, and that their assailants were instead Men of Bree under their influence.

Home Sweet Home: The Hobbits were naturally happy to be back home in the Shire after spending many long months away from it.

Subverted with Frodo, who just couldn't get over the psychological scars he had endured. Hence why he felt so out of place despite being back home.

Played straight with Sam as he walks back to his home and family after parting with Frodo at the Grey Havens, albeit bittersweetly.

Hooked Up Afterwards: Faramir and Éowyn, as the book chapter of them meeting and falling in love over time was cut, but restored in the extended edition.

Hopeless War: The War of the Ring was very much this trope for the Free People of Middle-earth. Sauron's power and forces were growing stronger by the day, the odds of the Quest's success were becoming increasingly slim, and all the while the armies of Gondor and Rohan were struggling to bring their tactics up-to-par with that of the Enemy.

The first half of the battle for Pelennor Fields has the Rohirrim absolutely curb-stomp the Orc legions. Just as Théoden proclaims that they'll drive them back and retake Minas Tirith, the Oliphaunts arrive.

Probably the cruelest one in film history is when Gandalf sends Balrog off the bridge and begins turning back...only for the tips of its whip to catch Gandalf by the foot and leave him dangling off the side of the bridge.

Horns of Villainy: The Balrog wasn't clearly described in the novels, but in Fellowship and The Two Towers it's given large ram-like horns, giving it a beast-like appearance.

Hostile Weather: The snowstorm on Caradhras. The movie clearly shows that Saruman is behind it too, while in the book it's left vague.

I Am Not Left-Handed: When Gandalf confronts Saruman while the latter is speaking through the possessed King Théoden, Saruman mocks him with the declaration "You have no power here, Gandalf the Grey!". At this, Gandalf casts off his grey outer cloak, revealing himself (to possessed!Théoden's shock) as Gandalf the White before successfully casting Saruman out of the king's mind.

I Gave My Word: After Pelennor Fields, the army of the dead demand Aragorn release them, as he promised he would. Gimli points out they could still be useful, but Aragorn chooses to keep his promise.

Gimli: Certainty of death, small chance of success... What are we waiting for?

Iconic Sequel Song: While the motifs for Rohan and Minas Tirith are some of the most recognizable parts of the series' score, they first appear in The Two Towers and The Return of the King respectively.

Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Saruman dies in the extended version of Return of the King by getting stabbed, falling off the tower of Isengard and onto a spiky wheel of a machine. For bonus symbolism points, the wheel then shifts because of his weight and turns until Saruman is on the bottom, hidden beneath the pool of water.

Treebeard: The filth of Saruman is washing away.

Improbable Aiming Skills: Elvish archery in general; see for example the Elves in the prologue shooting Orcs off the slopes of Mount Doom at what looks like over a mile away. And there's Legolas specifically, of course, who shoots Orcs in the head while shield-surfing.

Inertial Impalement: Subverted in The Two Towers: The Rohirrim cavalry charges down a steep incline where orc pikemen are massing. However, the sun rises just in time for them to be dazzled, and the charge completely breaks the line apart.

Insane Troll Logic: In The Two Towers, there is the following exchange where it's used twice in a row:

Pippin: If we go south, we can slip past Saruman unnoticed. The closer we are to danger, the further we are from harm. It's the last thing he'll expect.

Treebeard: That doesn't make sense to me, but then you are very small. Perhaps you're right.

Interscene Diegetic: While Pippin is singing for Denethor, the scene cuts to Faramir and his soldiers.

In Vino Veritas: At the end of The Return of the King, Sam avails himself of some liquid courage before going up to talk to Rosie, and after he leaves the table, we see some delightedly wide-eyed reaction shots of the other three hobbits. The next scene is Sam and Rosie's wedding.

Ironic Echo: Gandalf finds a record of Isildur's journal, accounting the finding of the One Ring.

Isildur: "I will risk no harm to the Ring. It is precious to me."

Averted in some dubs where they change Gollum's my precious but miss this echo.

Shortly after Pippin swears allegiance to Steward Denethor, Gandalf reacts to the situation with derision ("Perigrin Took, Guard of the Citadel..."). Later, during the battle in the city, Pippin then kills an Orc that was about to attack an unaware Gandalf. When Gandalf realizes what had just happened, he utters a far more sincere "Guard of the Citadel, indeed!"

Kubrick Stare: At the climax of The Return of the King Frodo gives off a crazed Kubrick Stare to Sam at Mount Doom before putting the Ring on. Foreshadowed in Fellowship when Isildur (in flashback) gave Elrond exactly the same stare, in exactly the same circumstances. One of the powers of the One Ring is to cause Kubrick Stares.

Lampshade Hanging: Performed by Sam in one of the Osgiliath scenes in The Two Towers. His big speech to Frodo starts "By rights, we shouldn't even be here!" In-universe, this makes sense as a comment on what unlikely heroes they are, but it also references the fact that the two characters never go to Osgiliath in the book.

Leave No Survivors: In the films both Saruman and the Witch-King tell their minions to kill everyone in Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith, respectively.

Leeroy Jenkins: a number of Internet parodies compared this to Aragorn's final charge. The Rohirrim at Pellenor Fields also experience this; Theoden's Death Seeker attitude has gotten to them so much that they'll charge a line of Mumakil without hesitation.

Legend Fades to Myth: According to Galadriel's prologue, this is why things came to be as they were at the end of the Third Age: people forgot about past threats, and grew complacent. Sauron exploited that.

The "Fellowship theme," a traditional triumphant brass theme as heard over the montage of the fellowship traveling out of Rivendell towards Caradhras. Later used for the Three Hunters, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. Notable in that, according to the composer Howard Shore, it never quite makes a full reappearance after the events in Moria; at least one note is off, or the rhythm is changed.

The "Hobbit theme," a sort of jaunty flute piece with bassoons and oboes evoking pastoral countryside. Plays over the "Concerning Hobbits" narration. Gets more and more wistful the more the hobbits, especially Frodo, go through Break the Cutie - only to be restored to full brass-filled glory when everyone bows to the hobbits during Aragorn's coronation.

The "Rohan Theme." Wistful when we first hear it on the Norwegian fiddle when the heroes arrive at Edoras, it later appears in full-on brass mode for Helm's Deep. Plays over the charge of the Rohirrim at the Battle of Pelennor Fields, with Norwegian fiddle and brass sections working together.

The "Gondor Theme." Majestic, soaring theme that wouldn't sound entirely out of place in a pirate movie. Heard as Gandalf and Pippin arrive at Minas Tirith and gallop up the city to see Denethor, as well as over the lighting of the beacons. An early version of this theme is played on solo French horn as Boromir speaks at the Council of Elrond.

The "Minas Tirith Theme", first heard in an Extended scene in Fellowship when Boromir and Aragorn talk in Lothlórien unintentionally become the "Andúril Theme" and associated with Aragorn's march to kingship. It seems it originally was never meant to be associated with Andúril, but Howard Shore changed his mind.

The "Mordor Theme." Dark and dramatic with lots of brass and ominous chanting when needed. Heard as Gandalf witnesses the arrival of the Nazgûl. Used to excellent effect first as a threatening sound when Sauron first appears before the Allied Army, single-handedly stopping their attack with his very presence, and then blasting into angry brass and choir as he sweeps away scores of soldiers with casual swings of his mace. There's another "Mordor Theme" as well, which is a dissonant, menacing melody, often featuring an instrument called a rhaita, which gives the theme a slightly Middle-Eastern feel. It is featured at its most ominous during the siege of Gondor, as the giant battering ram, Grond, breaks through the gates. When the ring is destroyed and Sauron's tower is falling, the melody reappears one last time, but the dissonance is triumphantly resolved.

"Gollum's Theme," appears all the way through the second film whenever Gollum is around, but most notably as a song in the end credits sung by Emiliana Torrini.

The "Isengard Theme," played with heavy brass and percussion in the Caverns of Isengard or when the Uruk-hai are on the move. Unlike other themes, which are in more conventional timing, Isengard's theme is done in 5/4 time, which sounds a little bit off or unnatural (as most music these days is done in 4/4, 2/4, or 3/4 time), to reflect the twisting of nature and industrial methods of Saruman. The percussion in question is actually banging an opened piano's wires with chains.

The "Lothlórien" theme for the Elves (or at least Galadriel's Elves) is first heard as an ethereal, dreamy piece with generous amounts of Cherubic Choir and One-Woman Wail. In the second movie, though, it gets transformed into a badass military march during the scene where the Elven army comes to the rescue at the Battle of Helm's Deep.

"The History of the Ring," representing the power of the One Ring, especially when it changes hands or when someone tries to take it — plays under the title card of each movie, so easily mistaken for the theme to the trilogy itself — or perhaps it is, in a way.

Éowyn's theme (the only theme other than Gollum's associated with one character), played usually whenever she's standing at the front of the Golden Hall.

The March of the Ents/General Badassery about to Happen theme (can be heard here).

There is a Moria theme, too, profoundly sad and full of grandeur, with a soft chorus of deep (Maori) voices in Khuzdul. It plays once, as the Fellowship walk through the deserted corridors of what was once a bright and majestic city under the mountain.

The Theme of the Gray Havens. Introduced rather late into Return, during the most desperate moment of the siege of Gondor, when Pippin believes all is lost. Comes to its full fruition when the last of the Elves and Frodo leave Middle-Earth from the Grey Havens. Before that, it gets its first true moment when Sam carries Frodo up Mount Doom.

Lethal Chef: Éowyn, as seen in the extended edition. She provides Aragorn with a bowl of stew—he eats one bite, and tries to pour it out as soon as her back is turned.

Man Hug: Frodo and Sam tearfully hug each other after Sam risks drowning to accompany Frodo to Mordor. Other examples from the trilogy are Gimli and Aragorn when the latter turns up alive at Helm's Deep, and Boromir and Faramir in a flashback following the recapture of Osgiliath.

The tune from "Concerning Hobbits" (the piece that plays as the Shire is introduced) appears at the end of the first movie in "The Breaking of the Fellowship".

After Gandalf removes the spell of age from Théoden, Éowyn looks at him and he says, "I know your face." When Théoden lays dying on the Pelennor, he looks up at Éowyn and says the same. In the book, he died without knowing she was there, but his last moment here is definitely a heartwarming one.

Not precisely word for word, but the essence of this is present in Boromir's first and last scenes. In the former, when he's informed that Aragorn is heir to the throne of Gondor, he retorts that "Gondor has no king. Gondor needs no king," pouring as much scorn into the words as he can. In the latter, when he's dying in Aragorn's arms, his last words are "I would have followed you, my brother. My captain. My king."

Melancholy Moon: Sméagol fishing in the waterfall in The Two Towers has a curious use of the moon. Sméagol, who has found a measure of redemption helping Frodo and even banishing Gollum, is "betrayed" by Frodo under Faramir's threat of killing Sméagol.

Mickey Mousing: The music matches the marching and chanting of Orcs as they drag the battering ram, Grond, towards the gate of Minas Tirith in Return of the King.

Miracle Food: Elven lembas bread (which got more emphasis in the original book) is featured in a scene from the Extended Edition DVD. Legolas explains to the hobbits Merry and Pippin that a single bite of lembas can fill a grown man's stomach for a day. As soon as Legolas leaves:

Merry: How many did you eat?

Pippin: Four. [groans]

Monogender Monsters: The movie's portrayal of Uruk-Hai, being all male and spawned from mud pits.

My God, What Have I Done?: Several, ranging from Boromir realizing he was seduced by the Ring to Wormtongue coming to understand that Saruman's gambit isn't just the overthrow of Rohan (possibly involving him getting Éowyn), it's absolute genocide of the human race.

Grí­ma seems to believe that Saruman is biting off more than he can chew and that he might be able to play both sides against the middle - right up until Saruman shows him the magically frenzied 10,000+ superhumans in plate armor. The look on his face is priceless.

Frodo has a "What did I almost do?" moment in The Two Towers. Under heavy influence from the Ring, Frodo doesn't notice that the Witch-King of Angmar is swooping in to grab him. Sam pulls him out of the way, simultaneously trying to get the Ring off. In response, Frodo pins him and threatens him with Sting. Sam manages to talk him down, but you can clearly see the horrified expression on his face as he drops the sword.

Frodo has another after he fails to destroy the Ring, instead knocking Gollum off the ledge by accident in the scuffle to possess it. The look he gives Sam makes it clear that he's deeply saddened by what he did.

Never Tell Me the Odds!: In The Return of the King, when Aragorn suggests that Gondor march against Mordor as a diversion, Gimli comments, "Certainty of death, small chance of success... What are we waiting for?"

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: In The Two Towers, Aragon stops Théoden from killing Wormtongue because too much blood had already been spilled. Wormtongue turns around and gives Saruman the secret to defeating the defenses at Helm's Deep thus causing nearly all the defenders to be killed. Too much blood indeed.

Nice Job Breaking It, Rivals!: How the Ring gets destroyed. After Gollum wrests the ring from Frodo, Frodo tries to take it back. The result is that Gollum falls into Mt. Doom, still clutching the ring.

Frodo begins to channel this as the Ring begins to take a hold of him. Over the course of the second and third film, we see him gain tired, red bags under his eyes and his skin turn a deathly pale colour. During a fight with Sam, we see Frodo display a frenzied, almost feral, look in his eyes and begin to snarl in an all-too-familiar way...

The Psychotic Smirk that Frodo displays when he finally submits to the Ring. Similar to the flashback with Isildur in film one.

Oculothorax: In the film version, Sauron is depicted as a literal flaming eye. In the books, the term "The Eye of Sauron" is not meant literally, but rather as a symbol of Sauron's vigilance, evil and influence; which several characters describe or perceive as being like a great eye Wreathed in Flames. However, the extended edition has a scene with the palantir where Aragorn fleetingly glimpses Sauron in his armored form holding the palantir - implying that he has a humanoid form.

Two more in The Return of the King: the arrival of the Rohirrim at Minas Tirith where they see just how huge the orc army is, and then when it seems they've actually won, the Oliphaunts arrive.

Théoden gets another when he sees the Witch-King coming right at him on its flying steed, in the moment before the Fell Beast bowls his horse over and drops it on him. The camera actually zooms and lingers on Théoden, who clearly lets out a sigh rather than, say, trying to dodge out of the way.

That huge orc army gets their Oh, Crap! moment as the Rohirrim charge, completely ignoring the arrows and spears (slightly) thinning out their numbers. Gothmog in particular gets a close-up of his face turning from a confident grin to wide-eyed fear when he realizes the Rohirrim are completely undeterred.

In a subversion, the orc army gets a Oh, Crap! when Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn get off the boats and charge at them. They Oh, Crap! BEFORE seeing that these three dudes brought an army of ghosts with them, at which point they simply panic. Similarly:

And then there's Gandalf giving a big speech to the Gondorians about how they can fight whatever comes through the gate. When the first thing through is three huge trolls, Gandalf gets a look on his face like, "Well, I wasn't expecting that."

Let's face it, the whole Battle of Minas Tirith was a series of alternating Oh Crap moments for both sides. Denethor's Freak Out!. The gate getting knocked down by Grond, the Rohirrim's arrival followed by the Oliphaunts. Gandalf nearly getting killed by the Witch-King, and then the latter getting destroyed by Éowyn and Merry. And of course Aragorn bringing a big damnundead army to clean up the place.

There's also Saruman's reaction to the Ents trashing Isengard. It's exactly the face you'd expect to see if someone was woken up with the news that the trees had come alive and were trashing his yard.

Legolas gets a pretty good Oh, Crap! look in Moria when he realizes there's a Balrog down there.

The collective expressions of the entire Mordor army when they realize their master Sauron has been defeated. There's something satisfying about seeing a big, scary troll running away like a little girl when Sauron was destroyed.

When Arwen summoned a tidal wave to beat the Nazgûl. Granted, they don't have faces, but their behavior was probably enough to convey it.

Merry, Aragorn and Gandalf's faces turn from triumph to horror when they see Mt. Doom implode.

There is another great one in the prologue battle, when Sauron makes his appearance on the battlefield. These mighty Dúnedain have just mopped the floor with the Orcs, and are about to declare their victory...then all of a sudden a black-armored giant with a very big mace strides into their midst...

Aragorn and Legolas are busy fighting the Uruk-Hai on Amon Hen, when suddenly they hear the Horn of Gondor being blown frantically. "Boromir!!!"

Frodo in the first film, when he realizes that the two words that Sauron's forces got from Gollum (Shire and Baggins) means that they know where the One Ring is and are coming to take it.

Offscreen Inertia: Played for Laughs. In the extended version of The Two Towers (but not the theatrical version), the last thing we see Merry and Pippin doing before the film ends is lighting one up, and they're still smoking away several in-movie days later at the beginning of the next film.

Offscreen Teleportation: Gandalf manages to move from Bilbo's party to Bag End in Fellowship before Bilbo himself gets there, even though he is seen sitting in the audience while Bilbo is running home, made invisible by the Ring. All without crossing paths with him, either. He is a wizard, but not even the most powerful beings in Middle-Earth can manage actual teleportation.

According to information given in The Silmarillion, Galadriel is one of the oldest Elves at around 10,000 years oldnote no authoritative source for her exact age seems to exist, but a calculation here puts her age at around 8,440 years at the time of LoTR, give or take depending on how long the pre-solar years were. Not bad for someone who was played by 32 year old Cate Blanchett.

In the Extended Edition, Aragorn admits to Éowyn that he is 87 years old during the events of The Two Towers. Being a descendant of Númenor, he's in his prime. He goes on to live to 210.

Gandalf, while looking like a frail 70-year-old, is a Maia (god-like entity) who has been around since the creation of the universe. He's been in Middle Earth for about 2000 years, and was the *last* of the Five Wizards to arrive. So Saruman and Radagast are older in that respect.

Once More, with Clarity!: A very subtle one, but the Fellowship implied that Sméagol was the one whom the Ring "ensnared" when he grabbed it from the riverbed. ROTK shows it was actually Déagol who grabbed it, and then was murdered by Sméagol. Of course, those who read the books were not even slightly surprised.

Onrushing Army: The orcs love to charge. As do any humans fighting with them. Aragorn and his army do it too at the climax of Return of the King.

Opening Monologue: Galadriel's now iconic opening monologue of the trilogy, describing the forging of the Rings Of Power, the Battle of the Last Alliance, Sauron's downfall and the One Ring being lost and forgotten, basically laying the groundwork for the beginning of the main story. The page quote at the top is just part of it. She speaks some Elvish (Sindarin) at the beginning of the monologue.

"(I amar prestar aen.) The world is changed. (Han matho ne nen.) I feel it in the water. (Han mathon ned cae.) I feel it in the earth. (A han noston ned gwilith.) I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it."

Orcus on His Throne: Sauron is a rather less sketchy figure than in the novels; he is instead a literal flaming eye, on top of Barad-dûr. Peter Jackson originally planned for Sauron to take physical form in the battle in front of the Black Gate, but thought better of it.

Our Angels Are Different: Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron, and the Balrog are Maiar, the Middle-Earth equivalent of angels. The latter two were corrupted by Morgoth during the First Age, while the former two were sent to Middle-Earth in the Third Age to help defeat Sauron.

Parental Favoritism: Denethor clearly favored Boromir over Faramir, going so far as to admit that he wished that Boromir were still alive and Faramir were dead.

Parental Marriage Veto: Emphasized a lot more in the films with Elrond's outright disapproval of Aragorn's and Arwen's relationship. In the book he is saddened, but gives the conditions not out of spite but to provide the best for his daughter.

Plot Parallel: Because The Two Towers shows Frodo and Sam's travels concurrently with Aragorn's, the scene where Frodo reminds Gollum of his original name is immediately followed by one where Aragorn reminds Gandalf of his.

Poor Communication Kills: Faramir is benevolent enough to offer Frodo the chance to talk Gollum out of the Forbidden Pool before Faramir's troops shoot Gollum for violating the law, but instead of carefully explaining to Gollum that there are soldiers waiting above and that Gollum can either risk capture or be killed on the spot, Frodo doesn't bother to explain the situation beyond "you must come with Master." When Gollum obeys and is captured by Faramir's men, Gollum confuses the "come with me" offer for a betrayal and shortly begins plotting his revenge.

Power of Friendship: One of the biggest themes of Lord of the Rings. They were not known as the Fellowship of the Ring for nothing!

The removal of Tom Bombadil and the excision of the Scouring of the Shire.

Frodo not having the Ring for 17 years before Gandalf comes back — here it's implied he only had it for a couple of months at the most.

Peter Jackson himself invoked this in his explanation as to his complete rewrite of the meetings of Faramir and Frodo's group: in the books, he lets them go free after learning of their quest and agreeing with it; in the film, he keeps them captive in order to take The Ring. Jackson said specifically this was because after the first book, the Ring's power to corrupt became an Informed Ability until it surfaced again at the tail-end of Return; in order to remind the viewer that it was basically evil incarnate, and keep with the rules Tolkien himself set, he had to have Faramir be tempted by the Ring.

The Osgiliath detour even gets a subtle nod in Sam's speech:

Sam: By rights we shouldn't even be here!

He wanted to move Shelob to the third movie because anything was going to pale next to Helm's Deep, and that left Frodo and Sam completely out of (action-y) danger for the entire movie. There had to be a threat, and poor Faramir got drafted.

When Tolkien commented on ideas for a film version by Forest J. Ackerman, he said they should probably skip the Hornburg entirely so that the Ents' attack on Isengard as well as the final battle would look that much more impressive. (We’re all glad the filmmakers didn’t take him up on that.)

Postponing his acquisition of Andúril to the third film gave Aragorn greater credibility as a ranger earlier on, as he got to demonstrate his knife skills more. Having him leave Narsil's shards in Rivendell also avoided the visible incongruity of a trained survivalist, who needs to travel light, hauling a priceless historical artifact all over the wilderness with him.

In the books, there's a lot of random elves who show up, do one incredibly plot-crucial thing, and are never seen again. Most of their jobs went to Arwen, so she'd have something to do to make the audience actually give a damn about her. Elrond got the rest. And then later completely turned on its head when Arwen was to be added to the Battle of the Hornburg before Peter Jackson decided it would be too much, which led to another elf getting a one-off: Haldir. Unfortunately, he dies in the films, while in the books his fate is undetermined.

In the books, as Saruman's power wanes and Gandalf's grows, the white of Saruman's robes and hair fragments change so much that he becomes "Saruman of Many-Colours." The film-makers, realising how utterly ridiculous a rainbow-coloured wizard would look, represent this by having Saruman's robes get dirtier as he descends into evil.

Merry instantly recognises Eowyn when she is disguised as a Rohirrim soldier. This is because it would have been impossible to make Miranda Otto look like a man without it looking silly, and for Merry to not realise it was her until she takes off her helmet (as happens in the book) would have made him look like an idiot.

The Precarious Ledge: The Fellowships must traverse a narrow ledge at The Pass of Caradhras through the snow, even as Saruman tries to bring them down with his foul chanting.

Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Éowyn says "I am no man!" before stabbing the Witch-King in the face (after he said "No man can kill me!").

Pull Yourself Down the Spear: In The Fellowship of the Ring, when Aragorn stabs Lurtz in the stomach, the Uruk-hai responds by pulling the sword inwards, snarling at Aragorn, possibly to get close enough to hurt him. Aragorn pulls the sword out and chops off Lurtz's head.

Q through Z

The Queen's Latin: Nearly all characters speak with an English accent or another from the British Isles like Scottish or Irish, quite possibly as a Translation Convention for the Common Tongue of Tolkien's universe.

The Balrog chases them off before the fight actually happens but in the Mines of Moria, the Fellowship finds itself completely surrounded by a really absurd number of goblins.

Happens again, on an even larger scale, at the siege of the Black Gate.

Rain of Arrows: Elves, mostly. Orcs manage it during the siege of Minas Tirith with ballistae, though.

Rated M for Manly: Gimli's personality in the film, as opposed to the book. The Dwarves in the book, as conceived by Tolkien, are far more dignified. But Gimli's part in the film has been written partly to provide comic relief and partly to provide a contrast to Legolas as played by Orlando Bloom and therefore he got a comically-exaggerated masculine attitude: almost-suicidally brave, gruff, deep-voiced, tremendously proud and braggart, fond of malt beer and red meat off the bone, Deadpan Snarker to the best, spiteful towards those who don't live to his standards of bravery.

Gimli (in the caves of the Dead): You waste your time, Aragorn! They had no honor in life, they have none now in death!

Rays from Heaven: These are used when Gandalf the White arrives at Minas Tirith and incidentally rescues Faramir from a dark Nazgûl attack. It's especially symbolic because the clouds were literally sent from Mordor to aid the forces of darkness.

Reality Ensues: After Boromir falls after taking a number of arrows to the torso, Merry and Pippin draw their swords and charge in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge... and promptly get picked up off the ground and slung over their captor's backs like a sack of potatoes.

Reality Has No Subtitles: Depending on the circumstances, non-Common dialogue may or may not be subtitled. A notable early example is Elrond shouting orders to his troops at the battle on Mount Doom.

Real Life Writes the Plot: Legolas's famous display of elf agility in mounting a horse in Two Towers was entirely improvised in post when Peter Jackson realized that, in throwing together the warg attack sequence, he had forgotten to shoot Orlando Bloom getting on a horse.

Red Pill, Blue Pill: Frodo is given the choice to unburden himself of the Ring and its mission several times throughout the story, but he never chooses to return to normalcy.

Redemption Equals Death: Boromir's famous death scene in The Fellowship of the Ring happened right after he attacked Frodo, tried to take the ring from him, and cursed him along with "all the halflings". What was he doing during his death scene? Defending two of these "Halflings" with his life.

Redshirt Army: It seems as though the only thing a soldier of Gondor is even good for is getting massacred by Orcs, Trolls, and other creatures that the forces of Sauron use.

Passing over(Caradhras)/under(Moria) the Misty Mountains was this trope for the Fellowship.

Frodo and Sam have to get into Mordor. How? By climbing up hundreds of "stairs" on an almost vertical mountain and crawling through a giant spider's lair. Because they obviously can't use the front gate.

Aragorn has to go through the ghost-infested mountains that no-one has ever returned from before. Though perhaps in this case the trope is not entirely played straight since he went in there to gain the alliance of said ghosts...

Right Under Their Noses: Pippin wants the Ents to drop him and Merry off right at Isengard: "The closer we are to danger, the further we are from harm. It's the last thing he'll expect!" Lampshaded when Merry looks at him like he's crazy and Treebeard says the plan makes no sense to him, but Pippin was bullshitting. He really wants the Ents to see the desolation so they'll get mad and go to war.

Peter Jackson has admitted that he and his design team weren't exactly sure whether a Balrog literally had wings or not in Tolkien's storynote Whether the Balrog just looks like it has wings or actually does have them is also a major point of debate in fan circles, but decided to go with the look in the films "just because it looked cool."

How could the beacon system between Gondor and Rohan be maintained? It made for an awesome scene. That's how.

In the first movie, when the Fellowship parts from Lothlorien, a white-clad Galadriel makes a blessing gesture◊, looking much like Catholic statues of Virgin Mary.

At the very beginning of Fellowship, Jackson bows to Tolkien with subtle grace: the film opens in total darkness, and the voice of Cate Blanchett begins to speak... in Elvish. Because with Tolkien the languages came first, and then the people who spoke them, and their stories. In the beginning was the word...

Perhaps the most obvious is Gandalf's arrival at Helm's Deep atop a white horse, in a scene straight out of Revelation.

Aragorn is given the messianic treatment as follows: He is the long-awaited returning king to a city long ruled by stewards, whose architecture resembles Rome and whose top tier looks an awful lot like the Vatican (It should be noted that Tolkien himself was a devout Roman Catholic).

Sam plays the role of Simon of Cyrene when he says "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you".

Samus Is a Girl: Eowyn still dresses up as a knight, but Merry catches on immediately in the films (but doesn't mind since she's still giving him the chance to go to battle), while the Witch King gets this trope full on before Eowyn strikes the killing blow.

Witch King: "You fool! No man can kill me!"

Eowyn: "I am no man!"

Savage Wolves: The Wargs are evil and vicious as the orcs who ride them.

In The Two Towers, Frodo starts climbing down a cliff face when the cry of a Nazgul causes him to freeze and fall. A fortunately-placed ledge catches him.

In the climax of The Return of the King, when Frodo and Gollum wrestle for the Ring, they both fall off the cliff towards the fiery pits of Mount Doom. While Gollum, along with the Ring, falls into the lava and dies, Frodo manages to grab a ledge so that Sam can pull him up and save him.

Scared of What's Behind You: In Moria Gimli thinks that the Fellowship is scaring off the orcs, naturally it's the Balrog that they're really reacting to.

Scarily Competent Tracker: In The Two Towers, Aragorn actually listens to the rocks to track the Uruk-Hai. Specifically he was listening to the vibrations coming from several hundred Uruk-Hai in heavy armour running at full speed. Tolkien's avowed fondness for "Red Indians" is showing there.

Scenery Gorn: The film is made of Scenery Porn during the "good times" parts, and Scenery Gorn during the "struggling times" parts. The best example is probably the view of the ruination of the Shire in the Mirror of Galadrielnote the actual canon Scouring of the Shire was cut from the films, so this was Jackson's way of wedging it in. As Sam and Frodo say in the books, seeing your own home devastated when you remember it being pleasant is far more horrifying than some anonymous landscape that you never knew before it was ruined.

Scenery Porn: Some shots just gush over the scenery, like the mountains in the opening of the second movie, and the beacons of Gondor lighting up. The movie has been referred to as the "the New Zealand tourism board's best ad".

Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: The troll, that Aragorn was fighting at the end of The Return of the King, runs away when Barad-dûr is exploding. Also, the goblin horde at the mines of Moria scatters when Balrog approaches.

Serkis Folk: Gollum. The Trope Namer, where Andy Serkis played the character by acting out on the set, and the CGI crew overlapped Gollum over him.

To the Ralph Bakshi animated Lord Of The Rings (the Nazgûl emerging from the tree as the four Hobbits hide in the roots), Shaka Zulu (the pre-Battle Of Helms Deep build-up), Gladiator (Aragorn's dazed horse ride to Helm's Deep; Frodo being carried by the Eagles), and possibly The Wheel of Time; "History became legend. Legend became myth"

The long shot of Gandalf and the Balrog, still locked in combat, plummeting together down from the hole in the roof of an enormous underground cavern beneath Moria bears a strong resemblance to a shot in episode 24 of Neon Genesis Evangelion where Unit 01 and Unit 02, still locked in combat, plummet down through a hole in the roof into Terminal Dogma, an enormous underground cavern beneath NERV HQ.

And to The Wizard of Oz and the Winkie Guards when Frodo, Sam and Gollum get to the rocky cliff above the Black Gate and witness the Easterners marching from stage left into the castle, unintelligible chant and all.

During the battle at Helm's Deep, the Uruk-hai placing a bomb in the drainage tunnel is one to the Sergei Eisenstein film Ivan the Terrible, where Ivan uses a similar device to blow up one of his enemies' walls. If you watch the film, the shot-angles are even similar.

Shown Their Work: Six DVDs worth of bonus material about the making of the films.

Slippery MacGuffin: The One Ring is just waiting for a chance to abandon its current bearer and get back to Sauron. It had more luck with its past, non-protagonist bearers (Isildur, Gollum) than with Bilbo and Frodo, who ultimately manage to foil its efforts, but it still almost manages to get Frodo to hand it over to a Nazgûl at one point.

Spared by the Adaptation: In the book, one of the Ents is set on fire during parley with Saruman and presumably dies. In the film, it is lucky enough to be ignited just before Isengard is flooded and douses its head in the rising waters.

Split-Personality Makeover: Most notably with their voices, but there are subtle visual differences as well. (Sméagol's pupils are far more dilated than Gollum's, for instance.) Metaphysical theses have been written on the "diagnosis" of DID for Gollum/Sméagol. Tolkien did not mean it this way. Several characters in the book, notably Sam, dialogue with themselves when they're trying to decide something. Jackson made it look more like what happens in Fight Club.

At the Prancing Pony, Merry comes back to the Hobbits' table looking pleased with himself, carrying a mug of ale that dwarfs (*ahem*) the others'. "This, my friend," he tells Pippin, "is a pint." "They come in pints?" asks a bewildered Pippin, before adding, "I'm getting one." What were the Hobbits drinking up to that point? Half-pints.

Gimli's cousin, Balin, calls Moria, a dwarven mine and his (Balin's) own kingdom, a mine. A mine, get it?

Steel Mill: Saruman runs one at the basement of Isengard. The scene was filmed in a real foundry, using real steelworkers using Orc costumes.

Stern Chase: The Nazgûl. "They will never stop hunting you." Also, the Three Hunters.

Stranger in a Familiar Land: The Hobbits after returning to the Shire. Merry and Pippin stare longingly at their military uniforms, while Frodo is burdened by his wounds and his experience as a Ringbearer. Sam is best able to cope with being back home, but shares a private toast with the others at the Green Dragon.

Sweet on Polly Oliver: An out-of-universe example: As revealed in the DVD supplementals, Viggo Mortenson apparently dated a female extra that was costumed as one of the (male) Rohan warriors. The other cast members never let him hear the end of it.

Sweet Polly Oliver: Downplayed as Éowyn's disguise worked only worked as long as no only looked at her closely or heard her speak. Thus Merry recognized her almost immediately, but he didn't mind as she was the only one who would take him to battle.

In the prologue of Fellowship of the Ring, we see Sauron explode once the Ring is severed from his hand. Though this may be subverted as the affected scores of Men and Elves were more likely blown off of their feet than killed.

The Balrog pulls Gandalf down the dark chasm with its fiery whip as it falls.

Boromir takes down many Uruk-Hai as he is being pierced by Lurtz' arrows.

Saruman threatens to do this to Theoden while he is in possession of him, but thankfully, Gandalf overpowers his spell.

Then there is the Uruk-Hai suicide bomber that takes out the main wall of Helm's Deep and its Elven Archers.

After seeing how the battle is lost, himself wounded, and the Witch King no more, Gothmog tries to kill an injured Eowyn. Thankfully, Aragorn and Gimli arrive just in time to take him down.

Even the One Ring, using its influence, tries to make an extremely weakened Frodo give into despair and fall into the magma. But thanks to Sam, Frodo still had a little bit of strength left in him.

Finally, there is the death of Sauron, in which he explodes for the second time, and in doing so, takes much of Mordor and his followers with him.

Tattered Flag: The royal banners outside of Rohan's Golden Hall are so beat up, one of them gets torn off by the wind.

The Team: The Fellowship of the Ring, which was formed for the purpose of destroying the OneRing by going into the deepest parts of Mordor and casting it into the volcanic fires of Mount Doom, where it was originally forged.

The Magic Goes Away: With the One Ring destroyed, it is not only Sauron's dark sorcery that is diminished but much of the magic that remained in Middle-earth. The Three Elvish Rings lose what power they had left as a result of this. What little magic remained with the Elves and Gandalf are carried off with them to Valinor.

Technicolor Death: Although it's right in the prologue rather than the end of the movie, death for Sauron basically means becoming the exploding man.

Telepathy: Galadriel, Elrond and Gandalf are shown communicating telepathically with each other. Galadriel also speaks to Frodo in his mind in Lothlórien and at various points in his journey to Mordor.

Boromir, whose desire to protect his people at all costs makes him easy prey for the power of the Ring.

Also Boromir's and Faramir's father, steward Denethor, who's shown to be a gruff but kind man with the good of Gondor at his heart, but succumbs to Sauron's mind tricks that feed off his growing feeling of hopelessness, as well as his fear for his two sons and his people. In the behind the scenes materials, John Noble described Denethor as a tragic figure in the vein of King Lear.

Trailers Always Spoil: Gandalf returns in the second film, although anyone who read the book would spoil that, anyway.

Trail of Blood: Gimli tracks the hobbits in Fangorn by following the trail of blood left by the orc chasing them.

Translation Convention: The movies made a point of having characters speak in Tolkien's invented languages when appropriate, with English (Common) subtitles for the 99.9% of viewers who don't speak Elvish. However, when native speakers were talking among themselves, they reverted to Common (or Westron). Thus Galadriel speaks to Elrond in Common rather than Sindarin; the Witch-King addresses his orc minions in Common rather than Black Speech; et cetera.note This last case is actually subverted: there are many dialects of Orcish, one for each tribe, with not that much in common with one another or with the Black Speech per se (which is only spoken by the Orcs in Barad-dûr and the captains of Mordor). So they use the Common Tongue.

True Companions: Both in film, and out of film. By the end of the filming process, nobody in the cast wanted to leave, they loved each other so much.

Undeath Always Ends: During the Battle of Minas Tirith, Eowyn manages to kill the Witch-King, a disembodied spirit occupying a human suit of armor who used to be a mortal man, presumably destroying him for good.

Unexplained Recovery: We last see Gollum falling off the cliffs around Shelob's Lair (and from the looks of it, it would be a deadly fall). At the climax, we then see him again up on Mt. Doom, somehow having miraculously survived his fall. Perhaps being under the influence of the Ring for as long as he has been had given him a Made of Iron perk. Or he just got lucky.

Untouchable Until Tagged: Boromir was on a rip roaring Orc slaying binge until a single arrow hits him, which was enough to get him mobbed and killed.

Vertigo Effect: Used by Peter Jackson in both The Fellowship of the Ring (when Frodo senses the arrival of the Black Rider in the Shire) and The Return of the King (Frodo's first look into Shelob's lair).

Viewers Are Goldfish: Amazingly, this was defied by Jackson and company when the studio wanted them to put a Previously On for The Two Towers. Played straight with footage like Boromir's death and Isildur cutting off Sauron's Ring (which was repeated at leastthree times during the course of the trilogy).

Vocal Evolution: When he first appears Aragorn has a definite brogue to his voice - signifying his status as a ranger. As the trilogy progresses, his voice subtly changes to become more RP - and thus sound more regal.

Galadriel gets a bit of this when she goes off on a tangent while being tempted by the Ring. In the extended edition of Return of the King, Saruman gains some echoes when he tries to intimidate/manipulate Théoden, Gandalf, Aragorn and the rest of the party from Helm's Deep.

When Gandalf first appears to the Three Hunters in Fangorn, Ian McKellen's voice is over/underlain by Christopher Lee's, which has a wonderful triple meaning: the blend concealed the newcomer's identity until the last moment so that those who hadn't read the books (or been spoiled by the trailers) would not know of Gandalf's resurrection; it played to Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas's worries that Saruman was after them thanks to Éomer's warning and Saruman's pre-Face–Heel Turn habit of wandering the forest to talk to the Ents; and it suggested that after coming back as the White Wizard, Gandalf actually was Saruman—or as Gandalf said, "Saruman as he was meant to be." (Also, having become Saruman "the Many-Colored" it could be said he truly wasn't the White any more even aside from his fall to evil.)

Wait Here: At Weathertop, Aragorn says he's going to have a look around and for the hobbits to "stay here." Naturally it doesn't work out exactly as planned.

Weapon Twirling: Boromir twirls his sword a few times while waiting for the goblin horde to break into Balin's Tomb in Moria.

We ARE Struggling Together: Half the movies are about political disagreements between the good guys, and orcs seem to only work together if they're herded into it by torturers (and promised a good bit of violence as reward).

What Beautiful Eyes!: Close ups of Galadriel's eyes (especially in the first film) reveal that they're incredibly beautiful◊ with dozens of points of eye shine in comparison to the single points of everyone else. According to the Word of God this was done deliberately (using christmas lights rigged up in front of the camera) to help portray Galadriel's unique 'otherworldliness' in that she's the only Elf left in Middle-earth who has been to the Undying Lands (she was born there) and seen the light of the Two Trees.

We Have Reserves: Just like in the books, Isengard and Mordor use this as their primary MO when it comes to war, swarming over the forces of Men with sheer numbers, though they do occasionally bring in huge weapons of war in order to help their armies get past formidable defenses like the Deeping Wall at the notoriously defensible Helm's Deep (which was destroyed with gunpowder), and the massive, nigh-unbreachable gate of Minas Tirith (which was broken by the massive battering ram Grond).

Though it's somewhat justified by their presence not existing in the book, what happened to the elven army at Helm's Deep? Are they all victims of Death by Adaptation? The supplementary book "The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare" states that they died to the last man.

Saruman and Wormtongue's unexplained disappearance in the theatrical cut of RotK is another example. Rectified in the extended cut.

Gimli and Legolas are also subject to this to a lesser extent at the end of The Return of the King. While the fates of the rest of the fellowship are shown, they are left out of the epilogue. Perhaps due to its already considerable length, brief scenes of Gimli in the Glittering Caves and Legolas wandering the woods of Lorien were deleted.

Wargs look nothing like wolves, because killing wolves is no longer the acceptable behavior it was when Tolkien wrote the books. They were later made more wolflike for the adaptation of The Hobbit, supposedly at Guillermo del Toro's behest while he was still slated to direct. Of course, they are still referred to as "Wolves of Isengard" at one point.

They specifically avoided having the mûmakil use their trunks as "hands" as well as certain other behaviors that might make the audience identify them too closely with Real Life elephants.

Windows of the Soul: "There was no lie in Pippin's eyes", declares Gandalf after the former has looked into the Palantir, meaning that he has not revealed Frodo's mission to the Enemy.

There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for.

World of Ham: Ask Gandalf and Saruman and even the Witch-King, as well as Aragorn and the Dead King as to why this trope was casted onto this page.

Wrongfully Attributed: The now famous line, "A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to," was first uttered in film The Fellowhip of the Ring. Somehow, however, the line keeps being referenced as a genuine quote from the books by casual fans of the 'verse.

Younger Than They Look: Théoden while being possessed by Saruman looks to be a decrepit old man in his 80s or 90s. After Gandalf releases Théoden from the spell, Théoden quickly reverts back into his mid-50s look.

Sam: I wonder if anyone will ever say, "Let's hear about Frodo and the Ring!" "Yes, that's one of my favorite stories. Frodo was really courageous, wasn't he, Dad?" "Yes, m'boy, the most famousest of hobbits, and that's saying a lot."

Frodo(laughs): Why, you've left out one of the chief character — Samwise the Brave. I want to hear more about Sam. Frodo wouldn't have gotten far without Sam.

Sam: Now, Mr. Frodo. You shouldn't make fun. I was being serious.

Frodo: So was I.

You Didn't Ask: When Frodo and Sam hook up with Gollum to guide them, Frodo asks Gollum to "take us to the Black Gate" of Mordor, which he does. They see how massive and impenetrable the entrance is, and when they are about to make a charge for it, anyway; Gollum pulls them back and tells them there is another way in. Sam asks why he didn't mention this before. Well... you didn't ask...

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